A Co Cavan nun who was also a midwife delivered and cared for Pope Francis as a baby at his family home in Argentina in 1936.
Matt Moran who is an expert in the world of Irish missionaries has made the discovery
He wrote the book, The Legacy of Irish Missionaries Lives On, and has now traced the origins of the Cavan nun who helped Pope Francis in his earliest days.
Sr Oliva Maria, formerly Susan Cusack who hailed from Crosserlough, trained as a nurse and midwife in Paris with the Little Sisters of the Assumption from 1909 onwards.
The order of the Little Sisters of the Assumption were founded in France in 1865. Susan Cusack, a daughter of a small farmer left Crosserlough aged 20 years of age to train, little did she know on December 17th 1936 she would deliver and care for a future pontiff, Pope Francis.
Mr Moran says that Sr Oliva Maria was born Susan Cusack on the 1st of January 1889 to Philip and Ellen Cusack (nee Donohue) in the parish of Crosserlough. She was one of four girls and two boys, who lived on a small farm. She was baptised in Crosserlough’s St Mary’s Church, and attended St Mary’s National School.
Sr Oliva returned home to Cavan at least once in 1963, she worked in different areas of Argentina, before spending her last years near Buenos Aires. She died aged 86 in October 1975. Mr Moran said there is two grandniece's of Sr Oliva living locally.
Mr Moran who is a former chairman of Misean Cara, a charity which supports missionaries, was fascinated to discover her life-story.
